Born and raised in Arkansas, Craig worked in journalism and corporate communications. She moved to Minnesota in 2005 for a job at St. Jude Medical. Craig first ran for Congress in 2016, narrowly losing to Jason Lewis, whom she defeated in their 2018 rematch.[1]
Craig is the first openly LGBT+ member of Congress from Minnesota, and the first lesbian mother to serve in Congress.[2]
Craig sought a rematch with Lewis in 2018.[9] As in 2016, she was unopposed in the Democratic primary. In the general election, she defeated Lewis, whose candor was felt to be his eventual undoing. Regarding slavery, for instance, he said in 2016, "If you don't want to own a slave, don't, but don't tell other people they can't."[13]
Craig is the first openly lesbian mother to be elected to Congress, the first woman to be elected in Minnesota's 2nd district, and the first openly gay person elected to Congress from Minnesota.[14][15] She received 52.6% of the vote, winning three of the six counties in the district.[16][17] When she took office on January 3, 2019, she became the first DFLer to represent this district since it was reconfigured as a south suburban district in 2003.
In a verified recording, Legal Marijuana Now Party nominee Adam Weeks said that Republican operatives offered him $15,000 to run for Congress in the 2nd district in order to "pull votes away" from Craig. Weeks said, "They want me to run as a third-party, liberal candidate, which I'm down. I can play the liberal, you know that."[18][19] Leaders of prominent pro-marijuana legalization groups Minnesotans for Responsible Marijuana Regulation, Sensible Change Minnesota, and Minnesota NORML condemned the GOP strategy as "unconscionable".[18]
In late September, Weeks died of a drug overdose, throwing the election into chaos. Minnesota law requires a special election if a major-party nominee dies within 79 days of Election Day. The law was enacted to prevent a repeat of the circumstances of the 2002 U. S. Senate election, in which incumbent Paul Wellstone died 11 days before the general election. Since the Legal Marijuana Now Party was a major party in Minnesota (by virtue of its 2018 candidate for state auditor winning five percent of the vote), the 2nd District race was set to be postponed to February 9, 2021.[20] Craig sued to keep the election on November 3, arguing that the requirement for a special election could leave the 2nd district without representation for almost a month, and also violated federal election law.[21]Republican nominee Tyler Kistner joined the Minnesota Secretary of State as a defendant. The federal judge hearing the case ruled for Craig, noting that federal election law barred moving the date of House elections in all but a few circumstances. Kistner appealed to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which also sided with Craig. The appeals court held that the death of a candidate from a party with "modest electoral strength" could not justify postponing the election. After Kistner's appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected, the election was cleared to continue as scheduled on November 3.[19][22][23][24][25]
During Donald Trump's presidency, Craig voted in line with Trump's stated position 5.5% of the time.[29] In the 117th Congress, she voted in line with Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time.[30] Craig broke more frequently with the Biden administration in 2023, voting in line with the president's positions 70.6% of the time, the fourth-lowest rate of any House member in the Democratic Caucus.[31]
In 2020, Craig moved to Prior Lake, Minnesota, after living in Eagan, Minnesota, for nearly 10 years.[50] She and her wife, Cheryl Greene, were married in 2008, and have four sons, who were teenagers during her first run for Congress in 2016.[51][52]
On February 9, 2023, Craig was physically assaulted in the elevator of her Washington, D.C., apartment building. She escaped after throwing hot coffee in the assailant's face.[54] The man who assaulted her was sentenced to 27 months in prison.[55]
